TORINO: Snowboard: American Seth Wescott wins snowboardcross gold

TORINO: Snowboard: American Seth Wescott wins snowboardcross goldBARDONECCHIA, Italy – Seth Wescott, the veteran Mainer, missed his first hole-shot of the day in the final round, but passed Slovakian Radoslav Zidek in a daring move to take a lead that he wouldn’t relinquish, riding it to the Olympic gold medal.

Zidek finished second by less that the length of a board, while Paul-Henri Delerue from France was the first to extricate himself from a crash with Jordi Font from Spain and make his way to the finish for the bronze medal.

“He’s been riding for 25 years, just for this moment,” said one of the wildly cheering U.S. coaches. That might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. The 29-year-old veteran from Farmington, Maine, started with the halfpipe and freeriding at age 10, and just missing the 2002 Olympic team, but in 2003 when the IOC announced that snowboardcross would be included in the 2006 Games, Wescott turned his attention to the new Olympic discipline.

With bright sun bathing the energetic stadium crowd, the reigning world champion, Wescott, blasted out of the start to win the hole-shot on each of the first three rounds and even had a large enough lead in the opening round to indulge the crowd with a nifty “shifty” and “indy grab” on the final two jumps.

Part NASCAR, part short-track skating and part big-time wrestling, snowboardcross is a full-contact sport with crashes and entanglements common in every heat. Gliding and jumping skills are paramount, as the riders negotiate 13 banked turns and an endless succession of jumps. Sharp elbows can come in handy, too.

The Olympic track is on the long side at close to 80 seconds, which provides opportunities for passing, but the key to survival for four rounds of full-contact racing is the start. Mike Jankowski, U.S. team snowboard coach, said, “Seth’s got those long arms and legs and tremendous fast-twitch reflexes.”

The other element in getting to the first turn before your three other competitors is wax. Jankowski credits waxing guru Curtis Bacca for Westcott’s ability to consistently win the hole-shot. “He’s been testing and running gliding tests for at least a year,” said Jankowski. “All of our boys have been exponentially faster as a result.”

Wescott was uncharacteristically slow coming out of the start for the final race for the medals, trailing Zidek into the first turn, but in front of the chaos ensuing behind him between Delerue and Font. Wescott described his tactics: “I was trying to be patient, find an opening. The freestyle riders (those using soft boots) take a different line from the hardboot guys (such as Zidek) but I stayed committed to my line that I knew was fast. At one point I almost landed on Rado (Zidek) and had to check, but I focused on staying clean and waited for an opportunity.”

With only one quarter of the course remaining, Zidek finally gave him a window of opportunity, landing hard off a jump. Wescott made up the necessary ground then pounced on the next turn. Zidek said, “I felt him there and he waited and waited for my mistake, and then he was by.”

And then it was a dash to the finish with Zidek glued to the tail of Wescott’s board. “Before the line it was stressful, because I could see Rado’s shadow. When I crossed the line it was such a relief,” Wescott said.

Westcott sees great things for the future of snowboardcross, included for the first time on the Olympic schedule.

“The snowboard culture in the 1998 Olympics was overshadowed by a positive drug test,” observed Wescott. “But in 2002 the performance by the halfpipe team got the buzz going, and with all the marketing that has now gone into snowboarding, it’s becoming the heart and sole of the Games.”

As for it’s popularity in the United States, Wescott said, “The U.S. loves NASCAR and contact sports. They love the head-to-head racing aspect, and that’s what makes it fun for us as well.”